Photovolotaic devices, i.e., solar cells, are capable of converting solar radiation into usable electrical energy. The energy conversion occurs as a result of what is well-known in the solar cell field as the photovolotaic effect. Solar radiation impinging on a solar cell and adsorbed by an active region of semiconductor material generates electrons and holes. The electrons and holes are separated by a built-in electric field, for example, a rectifying junction, in the solar cell. This separation of electrons and holes across the built-in electric field results in the generation of the photovoltage and photocurrent of the cell.
As the area of the solar cell increases, the series resistance of the solar radiation incident electrode of the solar cell also increases and requires larger and more complicated grid electrodes to withdraw the current generated during illumination of the solar cell with sunlight. Fabricating solar cells in long narrow strips and series-connecting the strips alleviates the need for complicated grid patterns. However, heretofore the fabrication of thin strips of series-connected solar cells or the series-connection of tandem junction solar cells required extensive photolithographic and chemical etching procedures. The photolithographic and chemical etching procedures often created pinholes in the semiconductor materials which resulted in the shorting out and degradation of portions of or the entire solar cell. In addition, photolithography is not readily adaptable to a large scale continuous processing and greatly increases the cost of fabrication of series-connected solar cells. Thus, it would be highly desirable to have a method of fabricating series-connected solar cells or series-connected tandem junction solar cells without numerous liquid processing steps.